Alternative fuels pushing up the price of food

WHEN the moral debate raged over contraception a few decades ago proponents of birth control argued it was needed to keep the global population from expanding too fast.

Failure to slow the rate of births would lead to a food crisis, they argued. Not so, said the Catholic Church, which argued there was enough food in the world to feed all.

That may have been true 40 years ago and for those of you who believe Live Aid changed everything, but 30 years on, the level of world hunger is on the rise as food prices go through the roof.